The Shadow Kingdom
by Paradoqz
Summary: Even the shadows have kings.


TITLE:The Shadow Kingdom.  
  
AUTHOR: Paradoqz  
  
SHOW: X-Men Movieverse.  
  
SUMMARY: Some dreams only prosper in the shadows..  
  
EMAIL: paradoqz@hotmail.com  
  
ARCHIVE: Please ask.  
  
DISCLAIMER: Main characters mentioned belong to Marvel Enterprises. No profit is being made.  
  
***********  
  
Have you ever walked through a mind of a believer, Ms. Braddock? A true  
  
believer, a man who knows without any doubt at all the why and wherefores of  
  
the universe. The man who knows that God exists and what must be done to  
  
ensure His triumph? No? A pity.  
  
Does the name Hasan ibn Al-Sabah mean anything to you? Of course not. He was  
  
a scholar, Ms. Braddock. A historian and a theologian, much like me. Many of  
  
my students at the University of Cairo are fascinated with the man.  
  
Unsurprisingly.  
  
Theologian. Savor that word. It is a vocation, a study of the greatest  
  
force. Nothing of the posturing of the vague appellation you in the West  
  
bestow on anyone who lack the talent or drive to write true poetry.  
  
Philosophers. Hm.  
  
Hasan was a courtier and an intriguer and like so many academicians thought  
  
himself much craftier than he really was. And so in the end he left Cairo as  
  
an exile, a hunted man. He traveled East, as do we all when we seek wisdom,  
  
answers, a new dream. And somewhere along the way he found it, you see. And  
  
then, in the fullness of time, Alamut found him.  
  
Ah, yes. I see. That name does ring some bells. And many things become  
  
clear, no?  
  
Have you ever walked through a mind of a believer, Ms. Braddock?  
  
You can you know. They are all around you. Waiting for the Word of God to  
  
fall from my lips to their waiting ears.  
  
And the word is always the same.  
  
Death.  
  
Ibn Al-Sabah was a visionary, you see. Somewhere along the road from Cairo  
  
to the deserts, somewhere in the dusty streets of Isfahan, he learned the  
  
greatest truth of all.  
  
There is no God but God, and he was Him.  
  
As am I.  
  
No, Ms. Braddock, I am not mad. At night I do not hear stars whispering to  
  
me, nor do I have delusions of omnipotence.  
  
Just freedom. Of dross and lies and restraints imposed by the fools over  
  
millennia. Until we are little less than sheep, blundering through short  
  
allotments of our lives to the end of all.  
  
Freedom to know. To learn. To believe or disbelieve what you will. That what  
  
makes us equal to any God, Ms. Braddock.  
  
And that is what I am offering to you.  
  
Them?  
  
They don't want it.  
  
It's too big. Too terrifying. No limits, no boundaries, no simple answers.  
  
Do as thou wilt is the whole of the law.  
  
Most of the sheep out there would take it as the permission to debase  
  
themselves. Pillage and burn and rape. They dream like the insects that they  
  
are. And in the end they would be no happier than they are now. Sure of  
  
their righteousness. Sure of their God.  
  
No. Not me. I have no ambitions of being worshipped. Only obeyed.  
  
I am content to remain a prophet.  
  
I don't give them freedom, Ms. Braddock. And I don't give them answers.  
  
I give them truth. And I give them a glimpse of Paradise.  
  
Opium and hashish. Crude but effective. With nothing else Ibn Al-Sabah built  
  
an invisible empire that stretched from Notre Dame to Delhi. He let them  
  
look through the keyhole and that was more than enough to last centuries and  
  
more. Today the legend of Assasins is as potent as it ever was.  
  
His sheep grew claws. They killed and died for him, for he offered them what  
  
they so desperately wanted, what they so desperately yearned to see with  
  
their own eyes. A shred of proof that the oldest con was not con at all.  
  
Where he gave them glimpses, I break the gates.  
  
They saw the Paradise because they wanted it so badly, you see.  
  
If it were not Hasan, they would have found another way.  
  
I am Amahl El Farouk, the keeper of the key to the tree of knowledge.  
  
The question is only whether do you want to know or to believe.  
  
Well?  
  
Welcome to New Alamut, Elisabeth.  
  
Welcome to the Hand of God.  
  
Have you ever walked through a mind of a believer, Mr. Starsmore? A true  
  
believer, a man who knows, without any doubt at all, the whys and wherefores  
  
of the universe. The man who knows that God exists and what must be done to  
  
ensure His triumph? No? A pity. 


End file.
